Intelligence officials fear Trump’s rage over 'insufficiently loyal' 'deep state': report

As the country prepares for Donald Trump’s return to the White House, intelligence officials past and present are bracing for a more specific threat: the president-elect’s revenge plot against “deep state” federal employees whom he views as “insufficiently loyal,” according to a new report which lays out three possible scenarios for Trump’s payback.

The former president has long made his dislike of intelligence officials and other federal employees known, and his belief “that malevolent bureaucrats had sabotaged his campaign and were bent on undermining his presidency” still exists, according to a new report in the Atlantic. The publication noted that Trump even ramped up his rhetoric on the topic during this year's campaign, vowing to “demolish the deep state” and weed out government employees he sees as “dishonest.”

Trump could display his vengeance as commander in chief against the so-called deep state in a number of ways, but according to the Atlantic, current and former intelligence officials are particularly concerned about the possibility that the incoming president would attack a curated list of targets, oversee a mass firing of employees, or force officials to leave under pressure.

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“He has long railed against James Comey, the onetime FBI director he fired, as well as other senior intelligence officials from the Obama administration, including James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, and John Brennan, the ex–CIA director,” the report stated.

It added, however, that Trump is not just fixed on settling scores with the more high-profile government names.

“He and his allies have also singled out many lesser-known officials and lower-level employees for their alleged sins against the once and future president," the report said.

Also worrying the officials who spoke to the Atlantic: Trump’s promise to reinstate an executive order he signed shortly before leaving office that “would let him fire, essentially at will, tens of thousands of federal employees who enjoy civil-service protections."

The report concluded by noting that Trump’s pick for his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, is a clear sign that he “is looking for an aide to mount a campaign against ostensibly intransigent personnel.”